Ana Veciana-Suarez: How I Spend The Week Between Christmas And New Year’s

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WWR Article Summary (tl;dr)As Ana Veciana-Suarez points out, “Whether or not we care to admit it, socializing can be draining. Fun, especially the seasonal kind, turns out to be exhausting too.”

Tribune News Service

The mad rush to Christmas, that stressful sprint that makes me swear off the holidays every year, is finally over and I’m chilling at home.

I need the downtime after spending the past week sleeping too little and eating too much, sweeping away crumpled tissue paper and cleaning up after guests. Not to mention partying and dancing and gorging and imbibing.

In short, I’ve not been myself.

Whether or not we care to admit it, socializing can be draining. Fun, especially the seasonal kind, turns out to be exhausting too. And all those blinking lights, and goosebumpy music, and gorgeous decorations, after a while, even those can overwhelm.

But now … now. Oh! It’s seven days of limbo, a vacation from the seasonal bacchanal that is family and food and friends.

There’s nothing quite as relaxing, and boring, and strangely comforting as the week connecting Christmas to New Year’s.

It deserves an honorific title, some label to distinguish it from the 51 weeks that precede it. Perhaps Postmas. Or Preyear. Or Oldnewvus. Maybe Newoldvus. Something, anything, serious or otherwise.

Labeling this time of year is not a new idea, by the way. In Norway, it’s called Romjul, the space of days between Christmas and New Year’s.

People continue to eat and socialize, but generally they do as they please. Which, in a Scandinavian winter, probably means hanging out by the fire.

I also think Postmas/Preyear should be declared a national holiday, a period in which we are allowed to veg without a serious thought to what’s ahead. It’s an opportunity to ban emails, silence alarm clocks, forget calendars, and ignore social media; to do without the hamster wheel that is 21st century life. This in-between week should be regarded as a communal recovery time.